Page 75 of Shade of Ruin

But then the Shade turns away from me. The nymphs’ song is still weaving its magic through the air. The water that had been enchanted by them still clings to my body.

I want the Shade’s touch. No, I need it. Something inside me snaps, and though I can’t make the kind of shadows that would be required to hold the Shade in place while wearing my mother’s ring, I don’t need to. They’re already there, wrapped around my body.

Just as when I had crafted the Shade out of shadows before, I feel the magic of the shadows that cling to my body and make them mine. I am not just a stupid Wyrdling any longer as I wrest control of that inky darkness away from the Shade. They release me, and I nearly fall, my feet catching me in an awkward position, but it doesn’t matter. The shadows are mine, and I send them back to the Shade, to wrap him in them just as he’d done to me.

I can’t help but smile as they tighten around his arms and legs, slowly lifting him into the air just as he’d done to me. I can feel his body under the shadows, the muscles that are toned and taut, a warrior’s body. They strain under my grip, but it’s nothing. The power that flows through me right now is unbreakable.

I am the Princess of Shadows, and I am done being controlled. I am done with the lies and the secrets.

“If you try to remove my hood, you’ll regret it,” he whispers, and I hear the slightest bit of fear in that voice. He wasn’t expecting me to do this. He wasn’t expecting me to be able to take his shadows from him. He wasn’t expecting me to be as strong as him.

Behind this monumental moment, the world is silent other than the song of the nymphs and the gentle splashing of the river. Shadows fighting in the darkness. The world should be shaking, but it’s not. In this hidden corner of the world, there’s nothing but silence.

“No I won’t,” I respond. I reach out, my hand moving through the darkness. The magic of the nymphs is fading with every drop of water that falls to the ground, but I’ve wanted this for so long.I’ve dreamed of the Shade since the first time I saw him, since the first time he touched me with those nails.

When he’d marked me.

The cloak ripples in the darkness on a hidden wind. The sound of the last few drops of river water fall to the stones at my feet, soft splashes in the near silence. I stare into the darkness under that hood, and I know that in a moment, everything will change. My entire world will be different.

I touch the dark fabric that I know so well. The linen that’s survived so many years. Dyed with blood and tears. The fabric that smells of salt and cedar. Today, I’m going to find out who it is that I’ve been dreaming of. Who it is that I’ve been indebted to. I will see the eyes that haunt my dreams.

I rip the hood away.

Chapter 33

The Thrones are failing. The darkness calls to me, begging me home, but I cannot leave yet. The Thrones are failing, and my son is not strong enough.

~King Gethin, personal journals

Everything shifts.

The Shade isn’t standing in front of me. There are no shadows. And Lee’s hands are on my wrists.

I’m standing outside the pool, completely naked, but the Shade is nowhere to be found. “What happened?” I whisper.

You were about to do a terrible thing, Maeve Arden.An image of me catching the Shade in his own shadows rips into my mind. No, it’s like reality has been replaced by it. Just like when she’d taken me and Cole flying over the city without ever leaving Cole’s chambers. The image of me reaches for the Shade, and then Istop for just a moment. The shadows disappear, and the Shade takes a step back before falling into his shadows as he’s done so many times in the past.

I don’t really understand what happened. I remember reaching for the Shade’s hood, but when I pulled it away…it wasn’t real. She’d put me into a dream without me knowing.

“You tricked me,” I whisper to Sia. Only to her. Lee hears me, but she doesn’t say anything. “I could have found out who the Shade is.”

Sia shakes her head. “The Shade is trying to… The Shade is good. You will not ruin what he is doing, Maeve Arden.” She may not be crying, but there are tears in her words. “He is good. He is good.”

Siasaysthe words. With her voice rather than in my mind. The words feel garbled, like it’s a struggle for Sia to speak, but she seems so adamant about the way she feels. Then it clicks. She’s been in his head. Just like she’s been in mine. If he was here, she probably knew, and that means that she knows who the Shade is.

Her eyes sparkle, but no tears appear, and I turn on her. “Who is he?” I whisper the words, not sure that I can allow myself to speak loud enough that there’s any chance someone outside this room can hear. I may want to know the Shade’s identity, but I don’t want him to be caught by the House of Flames or Steel.

She shakes her head. Her voice comes out clearly in my mind.I will not tell. I will die a thousand times before saying another word.

I stare at her silently. It’s only then that I realize that all three of us are completely naked while having this conversation. “Don’t tell Cole what happened. Please?” I ask.

Lee’s eyebrow arches. “Why was the Shade here?”

I ignore her for a moment so that I can put my clothes back on. Our day of relaxation seems to have been ruined. “Because… I’mvaluable to him, and he wanted to explain that bringing Sia here was dangerous.”

Lee turns to Sia. “You can put your clothes back on. I think that this…adventureis over.”

Sia nods and hurries over to the dark corner where her clothes are. Lee gives me one more frustrated look and goes to her clothes as well. For just a moment, I have a second to breathe. What just happened? I tried to unmask the Shade? He saw me completely naked, and I… I turned his shadows around on him. I overpowered the Shade.

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